LA VERNE – Ayala High School senior goalie Alicen Wright wasn’t going to allow her Bulldogs to surrender a late score to ruin the second matchup with Sierra League rival St. Lucy’s.

On Jan. 21, the Regents scored a goal with three minutes remaining to send the game into overtime for what ended in a 1-1 tie.

But on Monday, Wright made 10 saves, several of which looked to be headed for the back of the net, to lead Ayala to a 1-0 victory over St. Lucy’s at Damien High School.

The last save was on a free kick blistered off the foot of the Regents’ Victoria Kamaj with less than three minutes remaining.

The Bulldogs (16-4-3, 7-0-2) need a victory over visiting Chino Hills (2-6) at 5 p.m. Wednesday to clinch the league title.

Ayala got its winning goal 15 minutes into the game when Alex Rovira banged it in from about 30 feet out and left the rest to Wright.

“When Alex scored, I just told myself I will not let my team down,” Wright said. “We’re not going to have a letdown on Wednesday either, because the league title is very important to all of us.”

The Bulldogs seemed to control the game for the first 20 minutes or so, but after Rovira scored, they went into an unusual defensive mode.

“St. Lucy’s outplayed us for much of the game, but we got an amazing effort from Alicen Wright and she fought through injuries to get us the win,” Ayala coach Jeff Allen said. “Our girls played really hard all game and we’re happy to win, but take nothing away from St. Lucy’s, because I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rematch between us at the CIF finals.”

St. Lucy’s (10-5-2, 7-1-1) had its chances, but Wright wasn’t only effective in goal, it was her ability to beat Regents forwards to 50-50 balls that prevented potential scores.

“We had our opportunities to score, but they were able to execute and we weren’t,” St. Lucy’s coach Andy Plascencia said. “I thought there were a couple times we might tie the game, but Alicen played really well in goal.”

St. Lucy’s goalie Carley Pennington had four saves.

The Regents will need a victory over Claremont on Wednesday and a Chino Hills upset over Ayala to back into a Sierra League title.